Sacramento - our stop for two days - was founded in 1848 on the banks of the American and the Sacramento River. August Sutter, a swiss adventurer, had big visions first but they were destroyed by the first discovery of gold. In 1854 Sacramento became the State Capital.
A great source of information about the history of the city, about the gold discovery and other occurrences in town is the Sacramento History Museum which also offers Underground Tours.
After a flooding in 1861 the buildings in Old Sacramento were all lifted. Also in Old Sacramento, with its historic buildings „wild west style“, is the California State Railroad Museum, where original trains anad cars in excellent shape and in an amazing quantity and quality are to be seen.
Leland Stanford was another big name in town. He was one of the „Big Four“ - responsible for the intercontinental railroad construction among other things - and his very ornate, (at the time) top-of-the-notch mansion can be visited in tours.
To stick with museums: the Crocker Art Museum is one of the top 10 art museums in the West if not in the U.S.A. The old mansion of former railroad baron Crocker was recently expanded by a modern building by Gwathmey Siegel Kaufman from NYC - which probably caused a lot of discussions in town, but fits very well in our opinion. One highlight is californian art from 1850 to present times, as well as the ceramics collection (incl. Meissner) and the most extensive collection of german-austrian paintings in the U.S.A., brought over from Europe by the Crockers on Grand Tour.
Top museums are one special feature of the city, a lot of greenery, especially on the Capitol grounds another one. Land Park - a residential neighborhood - combines architecture of many different styles and is often used for movie shootings. The promotional slogan in the city is "Farm-to-Fork“, referring to local produce being served in restaurants, sold in shops and on markets. And, there is a growing number of breweries and wineries in the area.
Especially the popular restaurants in neighborhoods like Midtown or in the Historic R Street District are not only famous for their excellent food - like Lucca or Zocalo’s for italian and mexican dishes - but also for their clientele.
Never have seen that many fast, expensive cars like Maseratis, BMWs, Porsches etc. - and so many extremely high-heeled, dressed up young ladies at a time! Perhaps the best burgers we ever had (they come in about 20 varieties) we ate at Burgers and Brew and good coffee was being served in Temple Coffee, a fair trade coffee roastery. Perfect for us was that the café was just a few steps away from our hotel, the Citizen Hotel - a beautifully restored historic hotel in downtown.
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